Banking sources have revealed that Morocco has secured a €654 million loan to part-finance two solar power plants s worth an estimated €1.7 billion.
Tenders for construction of the two plants, one of 200 megawatts (MW) and the other of 100MW, near the southern city of Ouarzazate are expected in the next weeks.
Reuters Newsagency reports this was announced by Mustapha Bakoury, the head of Morocco’s solar energy agency Masen, at the Desertec industrial initiative (Dii) Conference held outside Rabat.
Masen said consortia led by Spain’s Abengoa, GDF’s International Power and ACWA Power had been pre-selected for the 200MW Noor II tender.
The three groups are also pre-qualified for the 100MW Noor III tender, along with another consortium led by France’s EDF.
The authority has chosen parabolic mirror technology for the 200MW concentrated solar plant with a contract estimated at €1 billion, while the 100MW plant, expected to reach €700 million, will be built as a solar power tower.
Reuters sources said the loan came from German state-owned bank KFW and added that KFW would lend €330 million for Noor II, and €324 million for Noor III.
KFW would be by far the largest lender to the second phase of Ouarzazate 500MW project, the sources said.
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is already building the first 160MW plant in the Ouarzazate area.
The projects are part of a government initiative to produce two gigawatts of solar power by 2020, which is equivalent to about 38 per cent of Morocco’s current installed generation capacity.
To seal the contracts financing Morocco is expecting to get around €300 million from the World Bank and about the same from the African Development Bank and from the European Investment Bank, as well as other smaller loans from the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund, the French Development Agency and the European Union.
Reuters sources added that all the lenders would give the necessary funding, although this had not yet been announced.
Questioned by Reuters, Mr Bakoury said financing details would be given with the launch of tenders.
Morocco is spending heavily to subsidise power production.
It currently imports power from Spain with demand growing by around seven per cent year.
